No. 7 Pepperdine Men’s Water Polo faced No. 11 Princeton University in their final non-conference home matchup of the season Oct. 15 at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool.
The Waves entered the match with a 14-4 season record, looking for a bounce back opportunity following their loss against No. 2 University of California, Los Angeles on Oct. 12.
The Princeton Tigers entered the matchup with a 14-6 record.
The Waves had a tough fight against the Tigers and saw a last-minute rally to potentially tie the game up, but ultimately fell short. The slow start the Waves saw, particularly in the second quarter, made this one a tough matchup.
“One thing I’m not satisfied with is the slow start and a slow first half,” Head Coach Merrill Moses said. “We got to clean up some things defensively and play four quarters if we’re going to win a conference championship at the end of the year.”
The Tigers and Waves came out of the gates with intensity as the match picked up strong within the game’s first few minutes. Both teams came at each other hard but the defense was stronger, keeping the score low in the first quarter, but giving problems to their opponents.
After trading scoring opportunities, Princeton found the back of the net first within the first four minutes of the match.
Pepperdine didn’t let the Tigers keep the lead for long as junior attacker Adam Csapo scored the Waves first goal of the game just 22 seconds after play continued.
Princeton responded with two more goals and held a 3-1 lead, forcing Pepperdine to fight back from a deficit, that they failed to eliminate the whole game.
Down 3-1, Pepperdine called a timeout to regroup and shortly after play resumed, the Waves got their second goal. The Waves ended the first quarter down 2-3.
The Waves got their first promising chance of the second quarter with a penalty, but Pepperdine couldn’t convert as Princeton blocked the shot, keeping the game tied 2-3.
The teams then traded goals and the score became 3-4, but soon after that, Princeton scored three unanswered goals to take the lead 3-7.
Pepperdine outscored Princeton 3-2 for the remainder of the quarter, but still entered halftime down 6-9.
The Waves’ low scoring first half, highlighted by their inability to convert their opportunities efficiently, created a difficult obstacle to overcome during the second half.
“Against UCLA, we had a lot of counter attack goals. We tightened that up,” Moses said. “There was only two counter attack goals this game, compared to a lot more against UCLA. But also, we definitely have to score on our scoring opportunities.”
Princeton opened scoring in the second half and followed it up shortly after. The Waves didn’t find the back of the net until right before the final two minutes of the third quarter when freshman attacker Erik Ionescu scored.
Csapo followed Ionescu’s goal with one of his own, his second of the match, but Princeton answered back with another goal. The Waves entered the fourth quarter with an 8-12 deficit.
The final quarter saw the Waves’ best performance on the scoreboard. Pepperdine had a four-goal deficit to climb back from and did well on defense to hold Princeton to zero goals for the remainder of the game, keeping them at 12.
Pepperdine was able to score three goals in the game’s final quarter, with two of them completing hat tricks for junior utility Milo Joseph and Ionescu. However, the Waves fell short on the scoreboard, 11-12, giving them their fifth loss of the season.
“The biggest thing we can do is just look at the things that we did well and try to improve on those, and look at the things we did bad and try and stop them,” Joseph said.
Despite facing their first back-to-back loss of the season, they managed to keep their heads up and focus on the next game, which is their first conference game of the season. Moses said the team’s goal is a conference championship.
“We played good teams, competitive teams, but this is not what we’ve been training for, not these games,” Csapo said. “We want to win conference.”
The Waves are now in their final eight games of the regular season. Last season, the Waves season ended abruptly as they fell to an upset in the semifinal of the WCC Tournament.
Joseph spoke about the biggest points the team is going to take with them from this season into the conference.
“Game by game and kind of just have a do or die mentality,” Joseph said. “Whether it’s the best team in our conference or quote-on-quote the worst, I think we got to bring that same energy every day and understand that from here on out, it’s a must-win.”
Pepperdine ended the match with 11 goals and seven assists on a season-low 24 shots, while Princeton scored 12 goals and had nine assists on 33 shots, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
Pepperdine ended the game with 18 points to Princeton’s 21, 10 exclusions to Princeton’s nine, and eight steals to Princeton’s 13. The Waves ended the game 1-3 in sprints, and the Tigers went 3-1 in sprints, according to Pepperdine Athletics.
The Waves now hold a 14-5 record on the season.
Men’s Water Polo began conference play against Air Force Academy at Cadet Natatorium on Oct. 20 and took their 15th win of the season, 24-13.
The Waves will host Loyola Marymount University in their next game at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool on Oct. 25.
__________________
Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Email Nick Charkhedian: nareg.charkhedian@pepperdine.edu
